


Welcome to the Jungle

by shulkie



Series: Ereri Week! [3]
Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe - Urban Fantasy, Blood and Gore, Ereri Week, Graphic Violence, M/M, Magic smut, Minor Character Death, Smut, tw: guns (fake guns but still)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-03
Updated: 2016-05-26
Packaged: 2018-04-02 15:44:00
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 18,585
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4065502
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shulkie/pseuds/shulkie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Eren and his crew run heists on magical dispensaries, stealing goods to perform illegal spells until one day things don't go as planned...</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Ereri Week 2015, Day 3: Catch Me/Caught in the Act
> 
> \--
> 
> My tumblr is [perksofbeingawaifu](http://perksofbeingawaifu.tumblr.com/).
> 
> If you like please leave kudos or comments!!! ;D
> 
> \--
> 
> I had a lot of fun world building for this prompt. :D Their magic is a little more elemental (think ATLA) than Harry Potter. I had a lot of fun with this fic and I hope you do too! ^_^
> 
> \--
> 
> TW: Guns (even though they're fake)

Magic has been legal for nearly two decades. Magical reagents and components can be purchased _only_ at specially licensed dispensaries. Only tier approved mages may perform magic after years of training. Those who choose to operate outside the law will be prosecuted.

This is probably the moment where the Law & Order bong-bong noise would happen.

Ah hell with it.

_DUN DUN._

<*>

“The armored vehicle comes every Thursday for pick up, so we need to be there Wednesday afternoon, when the pot is largest,” Armin said chewing on his lip.

“We really going to hit a place in the middle of the day?” Jean complained.

Jean always had an opinion on everything. Eren had several opinions but none he could voice so long as his sister’s tongue was down Jean’s throat.

“That’s when it’s deadest,” Armin nodded. “At night they have sigils everywhere.”

“Yeah, but I’m just sayin’. We go in at night, I _zzzt_ the power transformer for the block and then we have the advantage.”

“Darkness doesn’t knock out sigils,” Mikasa said, looking at the crude map Armin had drawn.

“Boom! Power goes out,” Jean continued. “Eren goes in and does his cat-eye, see-in-the-dark nonsense, grabs the cash, grabs the goods, then we bounce.”

“The most expensive items are in sealed safes,” Annie said calmly, finally voicing her opinion. “We need the employees to get into the safes and we need Armin to get to the employees. He can’t see in the dark. Can you?”

Jean was one of those self-taught latchkey mages, as Eren called them. Bored kids who had nothing to do but play around with household items instead of real reagents and just happened to get lucky casting spells. Jean was good, Eren begrudgingly acknowledged that. He could manipulate power currents. Often he used his ability to shock Eren in the ribs, then pretend it was only static electricity. It grew especially annoying when the TV and lights would flicker every time Jean and Mikasa shacked up in the hotel room next door to Eren’s. Eren wanted to watch Jersey Shore just once without banging on the wall asking them to cut it out. Jean was also the newest to Eren’s crew, but Mikasa vouched for him.

Next was Annie. Her spells were small but succinct. She didn’t waste time being flashy like Jean. She was the getaway driver. She hadn’t been with them longer than 6 months but Eren found her dependable. He didn’t ask her questions unless they pertained to the heist and she didn’t offer any details about her past. Eren could relate.

Armin was their glamour man. That didn’t mean the long haired, soft spoken blond man was particularly glamorous, quite the opposite really. But he came up with the plans. He plotted escape routes, he took meticulous notes while casing the joint. Without him, their operation would never have gotten off the ground. Eren had been with him since childhood and trusted him with his life.

Then there was Mikasa, his sister. Flame specialist. Jean called her his ‘little cherry bomb,’ which she accepted with a blink of her expressionless dark eyes as Eren retched. She was Eren’s second when they got in there. She was the muscle. She could cast a propulsion charm around her right fist, knock someone into a wall then take them out with a well-placed fireball from the left. And she had. Several times. Mostly to Eren during practice.

Being an unlicensed mage had its drawbacks. For one they were always hunted by the MPs. For two, they had to practice in secret. Eren and Mikasa had grown up in a household where self-exploration in the magical arts was not only encouraged, but expected. They didn’t tell that to Jean or Annie though. They pretended to be novices rather than classically trained. And when it came to Eren’s “special” abilities, only Mikasa and Armin knew those circles he pretended to cast were fake.

“How long?” Eren asked Armin.

“Twenty minutes.”

This was the part Eren hated. The wait before the heist. Eren was ever vigilant, but antsy.

“Someone’s coming,” Annie sensed and Eren knew someone had tripped the sentry sigils they’d placed along the block.

Annie tensed, fingers curling on the wheel, as a man came around the corner. On his face were dark round glasses and a scowling expression. In front of him was a walking cane he swung forward, tap right, tap left, sweeping for any obstruction, his other hand in his pocket.

“He’s heading for the dispensary,” Annie noted, craning her neck. “I don’t like this.”

“The blind man comes by every day at 1:30,” Armin reassured her.

“That’s one more person in there you have to account for. Can you even glamour a blind man?”

“He goes to the back room and just sits there with some tea,” Eren said. “Then he leaves. Jean is putting up a sound curtain. The guy won’t even know we’re there.”

“I still don’t like it,” Annie said frowning.

Annie was cautious. She told Eren from the beginning if something felt off, she would walk. One time she did and they were glad for it, because at that same time two potion-fiends, high out of their goddamn minds decided to rob the place before them. They could have been caught up in that.

“We only get this window,” Armin reminded them. “If we back out now, we’ll have to wait another week.”

“What do you say, Annie?” Eren asked.

“Yeah,” she nodded, thinking. “Let’s do it.”

That was it.

“ _Welcome to the Jungle_ ,” Eren called.

“ _We’ve got fun and games_ ,” Armin and Mikasa answered, cleaning off equipment.

This call and answer went on for some time (much to Jean’s annoyance) as they pumped themselves up, pulling kerchiefs with skulls up over the lower half of their faces. Eren opened the trunk and pulled out the glamoured weapons. Armin and Eren had painstakingly handcrafted them over the past few days, making them look as real as possible. If things went wrong and they happened to leave one of the weapons behind, they could kill the spell, erasing any fingerprints.

“When can we get real guns?” Jean complained.

“We don’t want to kill people, Jean,” Eren reminded him.

“I know that,” Jean said hotly. “I don’t want to hurt anyone, just scare ‘em. What if they can tell these are fake?”

“They won’t,” Armin said quietly. “People see what they want to see. That’s how it works.”

Mikasa picked hers up and aimed it a Jean’s head and he instinctively jerked out of the line of sight. Mikasa snorted, having proved her point.

“If they somehow can tell the guns are glamoured, then you can zappy zap,” Eren said rolling his eyes. “Sound curtain up? Good. _Welcome to the jungle!_ ”

“ _We’ve got fun and games!_ ” Jean mumbled along with the rest of them.

Annie squealed to a halt in front of the dispensary, pulling up on the curb. Eren stepped out of the backseat driver’s side, taking point. Mikasa followed, kicking open the passenger side and sliding across the hood to flank him.

Eren pointed at the cameras and Jean aimed the fake gun at each one, snapping his fingers behind his back and shorting the feed. Eren got to the locked door and Mikasa melted off the hinges. Stepping over the threshold, Eren aimed his weapon at the ceiling and fired. There was no sound, and yet the employees heard it and ducked.

“This is a holdup!” Eren bellowed. “Nobody move!”

The security officer aimed his weapon and Mikasa kicked it out of his hands. A quick zap to the nerves at the base of his neck from Jean and the security guard went limp.

“Now who has got keys to the vault?” Eren asked, aiming the barrel at the nearest employee.

The frightened man slowly looked to his right and pointed.

“Goddamnit Fleegel,” the older man sighed.

Eren turned to him and as he did Fleegel’s hand moved slowly under the countertop for the panic button.

Armin stepped forward, catching his gaze.

“You don’t want to do that,” Armin instructed, staring deep into Fleegel’s eyes.

“I…don’t?” Fleegle asked, his hand frozen.

“No, you don’t,” Armin insisted.

“Okay,” Fleegel nodded, his eyes glassy.

“You want to take a nap,” Armin informed him.

“Yeah, that sounds good,” Fleegel nodded, curling up on the floor.

“And when you wake up, you won’t remember any of this,” Armin continued, his voice dripping with honey.

“Night,” Fleegel curled up in a ball.

“Keys,” Eren held out his hand.

“Even with the keys, you won’t be able to bypass the wards. Only I can unlock them—and it won’t unlock if I’m under duress,” the owner looked very pleased with himself.

“That’s why you’re going to open it for us,” Armin said, turning his large blue eyes to the man.

“No,” said the man, fighting the spell. “I’m not.”

“Yes, you are,” Armin insisted, pushing harder.

“No. I’m not,” the man said through grit teeth and he closed his eyes to keep Armin from prying.

“Dimo, can I call you Dimo?” Eren asked, reading the fat man’s nametag. “You like ribs Dimo?”

Eren indicated the man’s lunch.

“You have any idea what burning human flesh smells like, Dimo?” Eren asked lowly and the man opened one eye in panic.

Mikasa lit the entire counter up in flames and Dimo yelped.

“You are going to open up the vault,” Armin repeated forcefully.

Dimo struggled so Eren held his head, forcing him to look into Armin’s eyes. Dimo’s face relaxed and he nodded.

“Good man,” Eren praised and Dimo’s face lit up like a little kid’s.

“I did…good?”

“Yeah, yah did, buddy!” Eren clapped him on the back. “Alright I’m taking him back to the pen. You guys load up.”

All dispensaries had a security pen—a magic-proof iron gated antechamber before the really expensive goods. Only the owner of the store could open it—the only other way to get in was brute force but it would take you well over an hour to saw through the grate. The first gate had to be locked before the second was opened. The wards were designed to pick up a heartbeat and see if anything was out of the ordinary should the manager have a gun to his head, but Armin’s little spell had taken care of that. Eren would go in with the manager, bypass the two gates, load up the goods, then take him to the vaults. Eren hated the pen, he hated feeling trapped, but there was little choice in the matter. Inside the pen only a bright fluorescent light shone down on them. The blind man was seated on a quilted bench, one ankle placed over his knee, his cane laid along the flat line of his calf. He took a sip of tea and set it back in its saucer, his fingers curled over the edge. Eren walked past him on tiptoe, nudging the glamoured gun between Dimo’s shoulder blades.

Those who had prescriptions or were casual potion users could come in and drink. Several plush dispensaries boasted revitalization teas (which Eren found was often watered down gingerroot, not magical and certainly not worth the hefty price). The last one they’d robbed had several plush pillows and tables. Certain reagents weren’t allowed past the pen and it looked as if this paltry bench and chipped chinaware was the extent of the Reeves’ hospitality. Eren stood in front of the blind man while Dimo used the keys to open the next door. Dimo dropped the keys and Eren looked to the blind man, but the sound curtain held. Eren stepped in front of him and waved a hand. The blind man continued looking ahead at someplace behind Eren, his eyes hidden from view by his dark circular glasses. Dimo opened the door and latched it. Eren waited for him to open the vaults.

Most potion fiends or others who tried to knock off dispensaries went straight for the red bottles—strong, euphoria inducing potions that also increased muscle strength. In small, diluted amounts—say a drop in a cup of tea—they were helpful for the chronically ill. In large amounts they were dangerous with long lasting effects. Also, for the past year and a half they’d had a tracking spell on them that could be activated if stolen. Eren and company weren’t that stupid. He instead grabbed the items Annie had written down for him. The smaller products that were easier to carry and sold for a fortune. They never met their fence, but the last time Annie met with him, they raked in a pretty profit.

Eren grabbed the goods, careful to look for trip bottles—bottles that the employees knew to avoid, but most thieves didn’t. Annie had taught him that, saving him from being frozen in place while MPs carted him off to jail. Every time he had to wait for Dimo to open a vault, he looked back over his shoulder at the blind man sitting passively in the pen. Eren loaded up and then reentered the pen with Dimo, nerves jittery.

There was a loud shout and from his vantage Eren saw Jean blasted against a wall. Armin let out a wail, a spell to confuse the room that failed to land as his face was pressed against the floor. Mikasa lit her fists on fire and struck at the MP nearest her. Then what looked like a blob of black oil struck her in the chest. She tried to pull it off, but it wrapped itself around her knuckles, extinguishing the flames. It continued spreading, engulfing her whole body.

“Mikasa!” Eren screamed.

“Eren! RUN!” she shouted before it swallowed her whole.                      

The tall MP turned his black helmeted head to Eren as the rest took care of Jean and Armin. Eren went for the panic button to the front gate of the pen. The MP saw him and before the iron gate to the front slammed down, he aimed a small dart and shot it with a snap of his fingers. Eren dodged it. He considered himself lucky, until he realized the real target had been Dimo, who was passed out on the floor. Eren was trapped.

“Fuck,” Eren gasped. “Fuck!”

He paced.

“Uh oh,” the blind man said quietly, tapping his finger against his cup. “MPs have your little gang and you’re trapped in here. What are you going to do?”

Eren paced, tearing at his hair.

“Caught like a rat in a trap,” the man drawled, setting his empty cup aside. “When they break through that gate—and I assure you they will—they’ll arrest you. This is the fifth—sixth?—little shop you and your gang have held up. You’ll be branded as illegal practitioners, barred from magic. So _what are you going to do?_ ”

Eren lit his hand up in flame. His flames weren’t quite as hot or as powerful as Mikasa’s but maybe if he concentrated them he could burn a hole wide enough to fit through.

“Tch,” the man tsked Eren.

Eren’s flames struck the gate, leaving them singed and glowing, but in less than a second, the grated metal absorbed the heat, leaving the diamond shaped pattern very much intact.

There was a loud pounding sound on the other side and Eren hastily conjured a bolt of energy. Taking aim, he picked the weakest joint of the gate and fired.

“Don’t—“ the man shouted.

The spell ricocheted off the gate and broke into several beams, each one ricocheting and splitting into smaller particles. The man stomped his cane and summoned each of the projectiles to him before dissipating the mess.

“The gate is immune to spells. What are you stupid? Trying to get us all killed?” the man snapped.

Eren rolled his shoulders and shook them out. He placed his hand against the controls and tried to sense the current like Jean had shown him. Nothing.

No magic, eh?

Eren lined his fist up against the gate and struck.

The man let out another, “tch” clearly unimpressed with this plan.

Eren pulled his fist back again and struck. His knuckles were red. He struck again.

“You’re going to break your hand before you get through,” the man said in a bored voice.

Eren looked over his shoulder briefly before he struck. The metal lining the door was warped! Eren grinned in victory and struck repeatedly, then when there was enough of a gap for him to grip, he pulled on the metal, bending it backwards.

“Oh? Not bad,” the man said softly, standing and smoothing his front.

Eren dodged just before he felt the man lash out, his cane striking at the air where Eren had been. Eren reached up to grab the grated ceiling and launched over the shorter man and when he landed he lit up one fist in flames and the other in ice.

His opponent tapped his cane against the floor and it crackled to life, glowing with energy. Shit, an MP’s baton. Except this particular model was a modified version, Eren saw, as the man separated the cane into two parts dropping both down to his sides.

They waited, sizing each other up, the man stepping to the side, presenting a smaller target. Eren threw ice at his feet and he leapt, kicking off of the wall and bringing both batons down on Eren. Eren blocked with his frozen hand, the impact sending shards of ice everywhere. Eren swiped with the flames and the man jumped back, ducking low and sweeping Eren’s feet out from under him. The lit batons were in front of Eren’s nose.

“Yield.”

Eren considered it for about a half second before he knocked the baton aside and leapt to his feet, but the man was too fast and struck at Eren’s Achilles heel, bringing him down on one knee. Eren felt one baton under his chin, the man holding the other flat along the back of his arm.

“You felt one of these before?” the MP asked. “I don’t want to use it but I will if I have to.”

Eren hadn’t but he’d seen them used. Men writhing, curling up into a ball to stop the pain, purple and green sparks dancing along their bodies. Eren’s lip twitched into a snarl at the one in front of him and he struck out. The man brought it down on Eren’s spine and Eren saw stars. He screamed. He screamed and then he got back up. Struggling to his feet, he put his fists up in a boxer’s stance.

“I’ve warned you, but you didn’t listen. Now I’ve found pain is the best discipline, so I’m telling you: Yield.”

Eren didn’t even realize he had the claws out until one sliced through the tie the man was wearing, the little scrap of fabric twisting and dancing in the air as it fell.

“What?” the man asked in shock.

He almost had no time to react as Eren swiped at him with a large powerful tail, knocking his glasses off of his face. And then Eren _saw_.

“You’ve been in the Void,” Eren breathed, the man crossed his batons in a defensive maneuver.

He could recognize the telltale signs from Armin’s books—pale grey, almost bleached looking eyes, red rimmed, with dark crescent moons under the bottom lid.

The man tripped backwards, taking advantage of Eren’s distraction, and then drove both batons into Eren’s belly. He screamed and then collapsed, sparks leaping across his body and then stilling, leaving the faint stench of singeing flesh in the air.

The MPs finally broke open the doors a good ten minutes later. Erwin took one look at the man on the ground, a large hole in his shirt, checked the pulse of the shop owner and then stepped over both unconscious men to find Levi admiring the hole in the grate.

“He almost made it out of the pen,” Levi commented, sensing Erwin’s presence.

“Impressive,” said Erwin, removing his helmet.

Levi nodded, but his sharp eyes kept running along the edge of the metal. Every time a person cast a spell, they spent energy. Imagine blowing out a candle leaving only the tail of smoke. Levi could look at a vapor trail or where magic was last used and determine what kind of spell, what level of power, and trace it back to the mage that cast it. But he saw no trail. What kind of magic left no trace?

<*>

Interrogation Room 1.

“So you see officer,” Armin continued, slightly breathless. “It wasn’t really our fault. We’re just a bunch of kids who got caught up in a bad situation. In the wrong place at the wrong time. What do you say? Think you can let us off the hook this time?”

Armin summoned all of his energy and cast his large blue eyes on the Commander. Erwin snorted and leaned forward, casting a dark shadow over the smaller man.

“Did you just try to glamour a Survey Corps officer?” Erwin asked incredulously.

“I—no?” Armin said, blinking rapidly.

“Because that is a felony and has a minimum sentence of three years.”

Armin gulped.

<*>

Interrogation Room 2.

Mikasa and Mike Zacarius were in a silent standoff. Both had their arms folded across their chests, Mikasa glaring at the large man. She couldn’t tell if he was glaring back because his shaggy hair fell in front of his eyes. He reached into his breast pocket and Mikasa’s eyes narrowed as he removed a small bag of sunflower seeds. He split the shells open one by one, and popped them in his mouth, leaving a small mess on the table. Mikasa glowered.

<*>

Interrogation Room 3.

“You can’t get me to talk. Go ahead. Light me up! The only singing you’ll hear is from your grandmother’s canary because I’m no rat. I want a lawyer. DO YOU HEAR ME? I want MY LAWYER,” Jean shouted banging his fists on the table.

“That’s fine,” Levi said in a bored voice.

Jean eyed him suspiciously.

“Your partners have already given you up,” Levi said tiredly, rubbing at his terrifying grey eyes.

“That’s bullshit!” Jean shouted.

Levi shrugged.

“They said you were pretty useless on heists,” Levi said, inspecting the file in front of him.

“Who said that? Did Eren say that?” Jean asked leaning forward.

Levi pretended to yawn to cover his smirk.

<*>

Interrogation Room 4.

“So we took your prints but none of the ones we took were usable,” Hanji said.

Eren snorted.

“All eight sets,” Hanji continued. “Any idea how that happened?”

Eren shrugged.

“But we did pull prints from your friends. The girl you were with, Mikasa Jaeger. She’s your sister, right? Which makes you Eren Jaeger. Disappeared from your foster home at age 16, three years ago, which you makes 19, right?”

Eren scowled.

<*>

Interrogation Room 3.

“So wait,” said Levi. “You walk in and the lamp is gone.”

“Yes! And there’s just a chicken strutting across the room. And Armin is like, ‘Don’t look at me!’”

“And where’s Eren?”

“He’s in the bathtub—get this—eating a bucket of fried chicken.”

“No!” Levi wheezed.

“Yes!” Jean said, slapping his hand on the table.

“So Jean, whose idea was it to start pulling jobs on dispensaries?”

“Go fuck yourself!” Jean laughed.

<*>

Interrogation Room 4.

“So tell me about your parents.”

“ _Welcome to the jungle! We’ve got fun and games!”_ Eren sang.

“What about your foster parents?”

Eren continued humming, pretending to wail on guitar.

“What can you tell me about this woman?” Hanji asked, sliding forward a photo of Annie.

Eren busted out an impressive drum solo with Hanji’s pens.

<*>

Interrogation Room 3.

“I gotta tell you, I think this Eren guy is no good for you and Mikasa,” Levi said, motioning to Jean.

“Yeah, no shit.”

“Between me and you, I don’t know why you’re sticking up for him. I mean, once you’re behind bars, do you think Mikasa is going to wait for you? No, she’s going to move onto the next schmuck, which let’s be honest, will probably be Eren.”

Jean gaped.

“Holy fuck, you really don’t know anything do you? Eren is Mikasa’s brother.”

There was a tap at the door.

“Sir,” said Moblit. “We just got fingerprints back for three of the four suspects in custody.”

“Thanks. Really. I could have used this five minutes ago, but thanks,” Levi said snappishly taking the file from him.

Jean broke out into a titter.

<*>

Interrogation Room 4

“And then you gotta bring it down, give it your all for the crowd. _Oh! Sweet child of mine!_ Sing it Hanji!” Eren pointed.

“Are you, or have you ever been an affiliate of a group called the Titans?” Hanji asked, chin in their right hand.

“Now throw it to the back, get the bass in there! _Oh! Sweet child of mine!_ ” Eren sang.

<*>

Interrogation Room 3.

“And like Eren never shared his craft. Like who does that?”

“You know you’re saying that you hate him, but I think you might have a crush on him,” Levi said, bored now, chin in his left hand.

“Like, we share everything? We share soap, we share our cut—“

Levi leaned forward.

“Of pizza.”

He slumped backwards, putting a hand to his temple and closing his eyes.

“And like, he does this weird transformation spell, that is super complicated, and he won’t even share the basics with me? Says, he doesn’t know how he does it. Bullshit. I showed him how to do The Zapper. I call it ‘The Zapper.’ Nice huh? But he can’t get the hang of it. So all of this, ‘experimental magic’ stuff is bullshit. His circles are not that good. I tried to mimic his for the transformation thing and that’s how we got Belle the chicken.”

“What transformation thing?” Levi said, something stirring in his brain.

“Like he can go all claws or tail or whatever. I’ve seen him with like cat-eyes before.”

“What kind of spell does he use? Transmutation?”

“See that’s the thing! He says it’s complicated, but his circles aren’t. It’s almost like he doesn’t—“

“—even need them,” Levi finished, thinking of the hole in the grate. No magical trace.

“Yeah,” Jean nodded.

“Like a Shifter,” Levi prompted.

Jean snorted.

“Pfft, no. I mean, Mikasa would know if…” he trailed off.

Jean looked up suddenly, realization striking him, but Levi was already out of the room.

Got him.

“I need everyone off of the channel that Hanji is on,” Levi snapped at Moblit. “No communication in or out of that room, do you hear me?”

“I’ll just tell them that we’re cutting the—“

“No! You don’t say shit,” Levi whispered. “Let me handle this.”

He closed his eyes and Moblit stepped away from him instinctively. Everyone knew not to go near Levi when he was like this, lest they be sucked into his pull.

_Hanji_.

Hanji perked their head up from their chin.

_Levi. Long time since we’ve done this. Not since Barcelona,_ they thought.

_Don’t acknowledge my presence. I want you to excuse yourself from the room, but don’t alert Eren._

_Why not,_ they asked, stacking papers.

_He’s a Shifter._

“He’s out there isn’t he?” Eren asked suddenly, sniffing the air. “The one who has been in the Void.”

“Since you refuse to be cooperative, I’m sorry there is nothing to be done for you,” Hanji ignored Eren’s outburst.

“You’re out there aren’t you, old man?” Eren asked eyes wide and excited.

“Please excuse me,” Hanji said, shutting the door behind them.

“Gas him,” Levi whispered to Moblit.

Eren heard him through the glass a second too late.


	2. We've Got Fun and Games

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Eren wakes up in a strange prison. Levi tries to prove that Eren is a Shifter, but to do so, he'll need to get a little bit closer...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My tumblr is [perksofbeingawaifu](http://perksofbeingawaifu.tumblr.com/).
> 
> If you like please leave kudos or comments!!! ;D
> 
> \--
> 
> Part 2!
> 
> \--
> 
> TW: OC character death   
> TW: spiders, centipedes, general creepy bugs

Shifters were the great unknown. Persons who could take any shape without needed reagents or casting spells. Most considered them a myth, but there have been tales of skin walkers for centuries. Werewolves were a known entity. As were shamans who could shift into a ball of light before landing on the ground with heavy paws or take to flight. But true shifters, those who could change shape naturally, were rare. And dangerous. Imagine someone walking around wearing your skin, collecting your paycheck, kissing your wife on the cheek and playing with your children.

Most members of the magical community—old, rich, white men who held positions of power from the knowledge they gleaned and kept for themselves—claimed shifters couldn’t exist. That any people who demonstrated such abilities were simply gifted magicians. Clans like Levi’s—old insular groups, of which he was the last—had their own magic. Never trust an outsider, Levi was taught, they don’t know how to handle the power. They use magic for themselves, we use it for the family. Levi believed that until the last of his clan was ripped to shreds by the Void, their very being unraveled and split in front of him. He barely escaped and on bad days when a migraine bloomed in his temples, he could feel it whispering to him, pulling him back.

He wondered if Eren came from one of those clans. He and his sister were taught, classically trained, she more so. She had to have come from a clan like Levi’s. There were few left. Years of persecution had broken their numbers. Now their knowledge, their culture was the next fad. Daytime show hosts showing you how to _‘Change your brown eyes blue!_ ’ The new natural way to dye your hair—hire a glamourist! There was more transparency in the world of magic and yet it was more opaque than ever. There was still so much to learn and so Levi joined the Survey Corps, the research wing of the Military Police. Their mission was to explore the world of magic. “To boldly go where no person has gone before!” Hanji joked. And thus Levi gave away his clan’s secrets a little at a time, exchanging them for more knowledge and security.

Of course the problem with being on the cutting edge of research is when a new threat surfaces, your team is the only one equipped to handle it. Erwin Smith led the combat special team, but word was he was due for a promotion. Levi had no doubt Erwin would take half the team with him and Erwin had privately informed Levi that should he move up, Levi would fill his vacant position. He’d have to start from scratch, but Levi already had his eye on a few new members.

Right now, his mission was Eren. If he was a true shifter, like Levi thought he must be, there was so much to learn from him—enough to have Hanji frothing at the mouth—and it was up to Levi to discover it.

<*>

When Eren woke he was in a pen. Or at least he thought it was a pen. A geodesic dome-like structure set in a completely white room, it felt like the top of a birdcage, with crosspieces like a set of children’s monkey bars. A real cage. The very thing he’d been trying to avoid all of his life and he was stuck in it. His brain was fuzzy, but he snapped alert when he saw the familiar form on the other side of the bars.

“Sorry, we had to gas you.”

“Why?” Eren said thickly, picking his bruised body off the floor.

“Because you’re a Shifter,” Levi said pacing outside Eren’s cage.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Eren lied, staggering around.

“Tell him that his sister told us,” Hanji said at the other end of Levi’s earpiece.

Eren pretended not to hear the small tinny voice coming from Levi’s ear, stilling his head even as he listened intently.

“Your sister told us,” Levi said.

“That’s a lie,” Eren said confidently.

And it was. When they’d asked Mikasa Jaeger if Eren was a shifter, she lit up the entire interrogation room, singeing Mike’s eyebrows off.

“And your friend Armin told us,” Levi improvised, still continuing his slow walk around the edge of the cage.

Eren only snorted at that.

Of course when they’d asked Armin he’d grown pale and then put his hands over his ears and began screaming the lyrics to “Welcome to the Jungle.”

“You can’t keep me here,” Eren said. “I have rights.”

“Not if you’re a Shifter. Shifters have been deemed enemies of the state,” Levi said shaking his head. “We can keep you here indefinitely.”

That was only sort of a lie. Shifters, as an unknown, could be held for research purposes. If Levi failed to prove Eren was a Shifter they’d be forced to release him to the MPs for prosecution for the heists.

“Look, there’s been some kind of mistake, I’m not…I’m not a shifter.”

“I saw you grow claws right in front of me—“

“That’s just some basic transformation spell—“

“Then show me. Right now. Show me the circle you use to cast it.”

Eren didn’t. He couldn’t. He slumped back down on the floor, the whole room still spinning and fuzzy in his mind.

“He’s shutting down,” Erwin said, leaning over and pressing Hanji’s mic.

Levi could see that.

“We have your friends and your sister too. They’re also being held indefinitely for aiding and abetting a known combatant.”

Eren put his head in his hands. Levi continued walking. For every second of time passed he took a step, moving precisely like the hands of a clock.

“Who set us up?” Eren asked after forty steps. “Jean or Annie?”

“Set you up?” Levi asked.

“You were waiting, weren’t you? You were there every single day we scouted. You knew we were going to hit that joint so you set up camp to catch us in the act.”

“Annie,” Levi said crisply.

Eren sniffed, rubbing his eyes tiredly.

“I was really hoping it was Jean,” he admitted.

Levi paused, missing a second, before resuming his walk.

“Ask him about the Titans,” Hanji instructed into Levi’s ear.

“Have you ever had contact with a group known as the Titans?” Levi asked.

“No, your friend already asked me all of these questions.”

“We need to prove he’s a Shifter within the next 36 hours or we can’t hold him,” Erwin informed Hanji, looking at his watch. “Tell him to step it up.”

“Erwin wants you to provoke him,” Hanji told Levi.

Levi stepped through the bars in one swift step.

“I’m surprised you gave up so easily.”

“What do you mean?” Eren asked.

“I mean, you stopped short. You could have taken me if you’d really tried. But you quit,” Levi said, his steps echoing against the magicked tile, his cane at his side.

“You beat me, you won,” Eren said wrapping his arms around his knees.

“You could have killed me if you wanted,” Levi said throwing the remains of his tie at Eren’s feet.

“But I didn’t want.”

“Just as I thought. Weak.”

“I’m not weak for not wanting to kill people, especially not those who don’t deserve it,” Eren rasped.

“Pathetic,” Levi tsked, driving his boot into Eren’s ribs.

Eren cried out and then immediately lit up his fists. This time he chose liquid water, drawing moisture from the air and a weak electric spark in the other.

“Come on!” Eren challenged, lips curled into a snarl.

He ran at Levi and Levi slipped behind the bars. Eren charged but was stuck, his hands not able to go beyond the magic shield that was the cage. He clawed at the air and sent sparks in Levi’s direction, but it was just like one of the pens of the dispensaries, except a thousand times more powerful. Levi stepped back into the cage and smacked at Eren’s Achilles heel with his cane. Eren lunged but Levi stepped backward. Eren’s chest heaved as his enemy remained out of range.

“Ah, yes, the Wall. A magnificent creation of our own Hanji,” Levi said scaling the structure, his cane shrinking and slipping into its holster.

Eren watched him climb upwards, his eyes trained on him like a cat on a stranger.

“I can get in, but you can’t get out. Magical dimensions and all that,” Levi said, languishing against the bars and dangling his arm inside the construct. “You’re held in there by your DNA which we took when you were unconscious.”

He removed his hand which Eren eyed hungrily and tucked it under his chin.

“Whatever,” Eren said sulkily, sitting back down.

Levi sighed.

“Please don’t put this on the Christmas party video feed,” Levi muttered into his sleeve, knowing Hanji’s com would pick up on it.

And then he ran. He ran along the edge of the cage, following the perimeter, then turned on a dime and ran the other way. Eren picked his head up to watch him, eyes narrowed. Levi turned again, heading the other way, dragging his staff along the cage creating a rippling hollow sound, before swinging himself inside the Wall and then back out. Eren stood up slowly, brushing dust off of his backside. Levi hung onto two bars letting his whole torso slip inside and when Eren came for him he pulled back. Eren pressed his face against the magical barrier, flattening his nose and Levi stuck out his tongue mocking him. Eren leaned away, shocked by his expression. Levi tucked his thumbs in his cheeks and pulled a gruesome face, flipping his eyelids for extra measure. Eren snorted, nostrils flaring, pacing back and forth in annoyance.

“What is he doing?” Erwin asked Hanji as Levi continued darting in and out of the pen, Eren futilely trying to catch him.

“They’re…playing,” Hanji said, their lips curling into a smile.

“What are you doing?” Erwin asked, looking over at Mike who was adjusting the recording equipment.

“Oh this is going on the Christmas video,” Mike said and Erwin sighed.

Eren grabbed for Levi’s suit managing to only graze one mother-of-pearl button. Levi climbed up the pen on his hands and feet and when he reached the curve he lifted his feet up off the bar and then over his head like a contortionist. Eren watched his slow walk up the bars and then he ran and leapt, grabbing and climbing up with his powerful biceps, eye to eye with Levi. Levi dropped his legs down and swung catching another bar with the backs of his knees, letting his torso hang like a man on a trapeze as Eren hopped from bar to bar hoping to catch up. When he did, Levi was gone, outside the Wall, walking along the same bars, careful not to crush Eren’s fingers, holding his hands out for balance. He hopped off and onto the floor then resumed running around the edge and Eren chased him excitedly.

“This is good,” said Hanji nodding, eyes flitting as they watched the scene unfold. “Shifter lore says they like to mimic—facial expressions, voices, so Levi is trying to draw him out.”

“It’s beautiful,” Nanaba said quietly as Levi and Eren continued their mirrored dance.

Levi let Eren get close this time and Eren’s blunt fingers brushed a strand of Levi’s hair. Letting out a cry of frustration, he urged on speed, dropping down to all fours, letting his feet gallop along on horse hooves. He hadn’t even realized he’d done it, or maybe he had but he didn’t care anymore. Levi halted panting heavily as Eren climbed up the bars and then hung from a simian tail.

“Is Erwin happy yet?” Levi asked as Eren’s skin broke out in spots.

“Oh my god,” Hanji said covering their mouth. “He really is one.”

<*>

An hour later and Hanji had Levi asking Eren all kinds of questions.

“What kinds of animals can you turn into?” Hanji’s voice echoed in Levi’s ear.

“What kind of animals can you turn into?” Levi relayed, sitting cross-legged, baton across his lap, in front of the Wall.

“All kinds. So long as I’ve seen them. Watched a lot of Animal Planet as a kid, y’know?”

No Levi didn’t know, he had no idea how a shifter learned their ability. But it seemed Eren needed some frame of reference for his transformations.

“When transforming can you only hold one shape?” Hanji asked.

“When transform—“ Levi started.

“You know part of this Shifter thing is that I can have the hearing of certain animals, and the smell, and sometimes the sight, so hearing the same question twice starts to get a little annoying.”

“You heard him,” Levi said, hiding a grin behind his hand.

“I can hold many shapes,” Eren said. “Look at this—“

He spouted a long octopus tentacle on one arm and a lobster claw in the other.

“So it’s not just mammals?” Hanji asked. “Can you do insects? Arachnids?”

“I hope you’re not afraid of spiders, Captain,” Eren said, relishing the title he’d learned only moments earlier as he sprouted several hairy legs.

“Are they real or an illusion?” Hanji asked.

“They’re real,” Eren laughed, his green eyes bubbling into eight different green eyes.

It was a relief to talk about it, Levi could see the weight lifting off of his shoulders.

“No, but they may feel real to you, but are they real to us? Or is it a kind of illusion? Like an innate glamour?”

Levi rolled his eyes and caught Eren doing the same. He stood up and straightened his suit, stepping through the bars, dropping his fingers to his baton. He reached out a tentative hand to touch one of Eren’s segmented limbs, stroking down the length of it.

“I dunno Hanji, it feels real,” Levi said.

One of Eren’s other limbs casually ripped the earpiece from Levi and tossed it outside the Wall where it clattered on the floor.

“That’s rude,” Levi chastised, still stroking the limb.

“Now we’re alone,” Eren said, five of his eight eyes looking toward the security cameras realizing that wasn’t completely true.

The arm under Levi’s hand morphed back into the octopus tentacle, wrapping around his wrist and leaving sucking marks there as Levi peeled it off.

“What happens if I cut off a limb, since you have so many?” Levi asked, thinking about what questions Hanji would ask if she were still in his ear.

“I don’t know…” Eren frowned which was hard because he had a pair of boar tusks growing out of his mouth. “I guess it would hurt, so please don’t do that.”

“I won’t,” Levi said and Eren grinned like a dork with those tusks.

Levi wanted to touch them, but he was still wary about Eren’s sudden pacification so he curled his fingers and dropped them to his side.

“You transform with your clothes on,” Levi noted, stepping back.

“Yeah,” Eren said walking along on four giraffe legs, looking like a man on stilts. “I couldn’t at first. I kept ripping through several pairs of shorts, like some Bruce Banner shit, you know?”

Levi laughed, a short barking sound.

“Once I thought of them as an extension of myself, like a second layer of skin, I could transform with them.”

“What else can you do?” Levi asked.

Eren grew several limbs all different shapes, some were spider, some were ape, some big cat, and then they all changed into centipede legs running up the side of his body. While Levi didn’t feel any one way towards spiders, he felt a shiver run up his spine at the sight of a disembodied head with all those creepy crawly legs.

“Have you ever tried to mimic a human?” Levi asked.

“No,” Eren said thoughtfully, cat whiskers receding to reveal his boyish face thinking hard on Levi’s question.

“Try it,” Levi said.

Eren reverted to his human form, his face set in concentration. He stood directly in front of Levi memorizing the very lines of his face, then scrunched up his features. For a moment Levi thought he might actually do it as he saw glimpses of a pointed chin and ears that he recognized as his own but then the eyes were Armin’s, the nose Jean’s, the hair Mikasa’s and he shook them out into a vibrating blur. The vague form pulsed and then released as Eren exhaled.

“I tried,” he said dejectedly.

“Eren,” Levi said, using his name because every time he did the teenager perked up, this time with wolf ears. “When did you discover you had this ability?”

“I think…fifteen? Sixteen?” Mikasa and Armin said I should keep it a secret, so I did.”

Eren started growing ape limbs again, then spots, then stripes. He’s showing off, Levi realized as Eren grew a peacock plume. He was displaying his abilities like some animal mating ritual.

“Do you want to see something really amazing?” Eren asked, eyes alight.

He stretched out his arms and Levi watched the animal fur there disappear only to be replaced with a thick downy coat of feathers. They grew wider and longer until it doubled Eren’s height. Levi took a step backwards. Eren tested them, flapping gently at first and then he was buffeting huge gusts of air at Levi. Levi covered his face and took another step backward, eyes going wide as he watched Eren panting in exertion.

“You’re not afraid of birds are you, Captain?” Eren’s voice was small and tinny over the wind roaring in Levi’s ear. “What’s the matter? Watch too much Hitchcock as a kid?”

A feather floated past Levi and he heard it.

_“Do you think she made it?” Isabel asked._

_“I think so,” Farlan said, peering up into the sun. “You took good care of her Izzy.”_

_“Hey Big Bro look at her fly!”_

Levi was thrown backwards by the heavy wind, striking his head on the tile floor.

“Shit!” called Hanji. “He’s gone into the Void!”

“What?” Erwin asked turning on the spot. “What triggered him? Time this!”

“On it, sir!” Nanaba said, holding a stopwatch.

“I don’t know! I—,” Hanji cried out and they gathered around the monitors.

“Be prepared to gas the place. Have a team on standby,” Erwin ordered.

“But Levi is—“ Hanji protested.

“Levi will understand,” Erwin ordered sternly.

“I need a tactical team to the basement level, Wall Room—” Hanji radioed.

“Captain?” Eren asked, perched over him, his talon-hand behind Levi’s head as Levi continued staring at some place beyond. “What’s the matter? Captain?”

Levi felt himself being tugged down a hole, being sucked into the grey mist of the Void. Eren shook him a little, brushing a strand off his forehead as Levi continued to fall. And then it stopped and Levi blinked his inky lashes rapidly looking up at Eren who was holding him aloft.

“He’s out of it,” Hanji said.

“Time?” Erwin called out.

“Thirty-seven seconds, sir,” Nanaba said, hand on her stopwatch.

Erwin nodded.

“Record that.”

“Where did you go?” Eren asked as Levi stared at the sheer size of Eren’s wingspan.

“The Void,” Levi said tiredly, his thumb going to his baton.

Eren shivered at the mention.

“Can you set me down?” Levi asked calmly enough, but he was uncomfortable being held by Eren.

Eren smiled, his legs fusing and before Levi could move he was caught in a python grip.

“Eren,” Levi said warningly.

“Captain,” Eren answered back.

The giant wings encircled them, blocking them from view of the cameras. There, held in a cocoon of warmth, Levi found himself being pulled closer to Eren. He pressed his palm against the place where scales turned into feathers, ready to knock Eren out from the tranquilizer barb hidden on his ring. Then Eren tipped Levi’s mouth and kissed him. Levi’s eyes went wide in shock. Eren released him from the python grip and Levi grabbed his staff. He struck out at Eren, who dodged it and then raced for the safety on the other side of the Wall. Instead he bounced off, very nearly striking his head on the tile again.

“What?” Levi asked dazedly.

He pushed against the barrier but it refused.

“Hanji! It’s not working!” Levi shouted, banging on it.

“You said it tracks DNA,” Eren said smugly having reverted to his human form, hands in pockets.

Levi put a hand to the wetness on his lips in horror and wiped it off.

There was dull thud as the overhead speakers kicked on and Hanji spoke, “It’ll be 36 hours until you can leave, Levi. Contamination rules.”

“What?” Levi asked incredulously. “How am I supposed to eat? How am I supposed to shit there’s no—“

At that second, a toilet basin raised from the floor.

“Fuck you, Erwin,” Levi flipped off the cameras.

<*>

Two pizzas and one projection screen later, Levi was showing Eren their case.

“We believe this woman, the woman you know as Annie Leonhardt, could be a Shifter and these two men are also her,” Levi said around a slice of pizza, and the slides switched to a photo of a dark haired man wearing the armored vehicle uniform and then another photo of a muscular man behind the wheel. “Previously these two also took part in heists on dispensaries, like your little gang, but they only went after cue balls.”

“Cue balls…you mean those weird floating blue ball things? Those are harmless. Jean and I used them to play tetherball. They sell for a lot, but they’re not destructive.”

“There’s a reason dispensaries are only allowed one per store. They’re highly regulated because yes, in small amounts they are a useful magical tool, but in large amounts…”

He hit the remote and a video played of some diplomat addressing a large group of high society members in French. The diplomat began clutching at his throat. And without warning, there was a burst of bright white light and suddenly there was diplomat all over the assembly. Levi grimaced.

“Ugh,” said Eren throwing his piece of pizza onto his paper plate.

“We think your friend turned you guys in because you were gaining too much attention for her operation. She called into our hotline with a tip and that’s how we knew where to find you. She used you to get what she wanted and then she ditched you. So what do you say?”

“What?” Eren asked.

“If you join us you can take her out. You can take Shifters like her out. People who operate under their own set of laws and murder people.”

“Become an MP?” Eren asked, lip curling at the idea.

“No, join the Survey Corps. Become an officer. It’s a three year program. Magic is this new territory and we need good mages. Our recruitment numbers are low. There’s more people out there who want to use their power to hurt people than there are those who want to help them.”

Eren had considered it in a previous life. Before Mom had died and before he’d run away from the foster home.

“How do you know I’m a good guy?” Eren asked.

Levi squinted at him with his pale eyes.

“How do you know I am?” Levi asked with a crooked smile.

Eren followed the line of Levi’s body to where his thumb still touched the baton at his hip. He made a little noise in his throat and stared back at the projection screen.

“Will I get to work with you?” Eren asked casually, looking sideways at Levi.

“I only take the best,” Levi scoffed.

“Then I’ll have to work extra hard,” Eren said confidently and Levi hid a smile.

“Well don’t get too cocky,” Levi said, suppressing a yawn. “It’s not my decision to make. You still might go to jail. But that’s for the lawyers to sort out.”

<*>

**_Two and a half years later._ **

“Who do you think they’re looking to grab this time?” Connie asked excitedly from Eren’s left shoulder.

There was a soft flash of light, like the sharp rays of autumn and Connie was in front of him.

“Last time they pulled Mikasa to special ops,” Connie continued.

There was another flash and Connie was at the back of the elevator, arms resting on the rail.

“I’m just saying, these exercises aren’t just for show—“ he sighed.

He made to Blink again but Ymir seized the front of his shirt.

“Do that again and you’ll Blink through my fist,” she growled.

“Yeeeeesh,” Connie said putting up his arms. “Someone’s testy she’s not on Christa’s team.”

“She’s right,” Marco said. “Save your energy for the arena.”

“You going in hot or cold?” Eren asked Marco.

“I’m thinking…” Marco wiggled his fingers, pulling moisture to him. “Wet, actually.”

“Boo,” Ymir grunted. “Mr. Wet Blanket.”

“Hey, Jean is out there on the other team and we all know he’s going to try a big flashy spark and I want him standing in a puddle when he does so.”

“His hair is still bleached from the last time that you did that,” Eren laughed.

“And yet he never learns,” Marco said, tossing the water globe from hand to hand as it increased in size.

“I’m just excited to see what the Bald Goat has cooked up this time,” Connie said.

“The Bald Goat can hear you,” Shadis’ booming voice filled the elevator.

“Remember, shields up,” Eren ordered. “And if you see Armin, add another just in case.”

The doors opened revealing their arena.

“Really?” Connie complained. “The docks again?”

“Split up?” Marco asked.

“Yeah,” Eren nodded. “This is Team Leader going rogue. Be on alert.”

They each took a path and Eren found himself walking down a dark alley. Steam hissed from grates and Eren had to appreciate the attention to detail Shadis put into his arenas, even if they’d visited this particular maze before. Eren heard a low hiss and a red-eyed potion freak lunged for him fangs bared. Long term consequences of red potion addiction: first, face picking and obsessive counting, then pale skin, red eyes, and long nails followed by death before becoming one of the undead. Eren rolled his eyes and dropped his bag of marbles on the ground. The freak stopped and dropped to the ground, carefully counting and placing each one into his palm. Eren snorted.

“There’s vamps,” he informed them. “Be on the lookout.”

“That’s new,” Marco said in Eren’s ear.

It was. Looks like the bald goat had a few tricks up his sleeve.

“The squirrel is in her nest,” Ymir sang out in the mic. “She’s got her eyes on you, Eren.”

Eren listened intently. Sasha’s soft padding along the rooftop was nearly impossible for him to hear given the sound curtain she’d put up.

“Lead her down to us,” Ymir ordered.

Eren continued along the path, lighting a green flame in his hands.

“Okay, you get her into position and I’ll Blink behind her and knock her out,” Connie said.

Eren didn’t say anything, but strolled along, Sasha shadowing him.

“Perfect,” Connie said.

He Blinked silently behind Sasha as she pulled her bow back. Sneaking up on her he made to release a golden ball of energy when she suddenly fired her projectile behind her, striking Connie in the chest.

“Damnit!” he swore. “I’m out guys.”

“Ha!” Jean laughed jumping in front of Eren. “I can’t believe you idiots fell for that.”

Jean flicked a spark at Eren and he jumped back. Marco dumped his ball of water on Jean with a snap of his fingers, soaking him. He immediately conjured another.

“Sorry Sparky,” Eren said, dodging around Jean.

Eren had caught sight of Christa and Armin and he ran for them.

“Yield,” Marco ordered, the sphere of water swirling in his hand.

“No,” Jean said.

“You can’t shock me without shocking yourself,” Marco pointed out, the water spreading to the tips of his fingers as he took a step forward.

“No,” said Jean. “But I can do this!”

He stomped his foot, the spell freezing all of the water in Marco’s hands…and all the water he was standing in.

“Really?” asked Marco as the ice climbed up his legs, freezing him in place, the same also happening to Jean.

“I…didn’t really think this one through,” Jean said, teeth chattering.

Marco tried desperately to conjure a flame to melt through the ice as Jean tried to snap a spark. Sasha struck Marco in the back with a projectile and Eren sent a green flame over his shoulder that hit Jean.

“Bodt, Kirstein, you’re out!” Shadis boomed and both groaned, sinking beneath the display.

Eren chased Christa’s tail, Ymir cutting up the side until Armin threw a weak flame at her.

She pushed with her palm and the structure Armin was on shifted and he was forced to find new footing. Eren pursued Christa and threw a perfectly aimed javelin of energy at her. It would have found its target had Ymir not jumped in front of it.

“Damnit Ymir!” Eren shouted as Ymir’s suit lit up, signaling she was out.

“Armin glamoured me,” she lied unconcernedly, disappearing beneath the surface.

Speaking of…Eren jumped out of range of the small attacks Armin was sending his way. Knowing his best friend, Armin was trying to lure him to a place where Sasha could snipe him from her perch, so he stayed put, forcing Armin to come to him. Eren lobbed a golden orb up in the air and at the same time sent green flames from his palm at Armin. Armin was forced to throw up a shield to block the frontal assault, and thus missed the attack from the air until it broke over his head like a water balloon of golden sparks.

“Sorry Arm’,” Eren apologized.

“No problem, Eren,” Armin sighed, slipping down beneath the structure.

Now time to catch Christa. Sasha was nowhere to see, so Eren figured they’d regrouped back at their starting point. He started down a narrow street, keeping an eye out for Sasha on the roof. The steam hissed from the grates and then it became thicker and before Eren knew it he was swallowed up. He felt a hollow pang of panic seize him.

And then walking through the mist, Eren saw him.

“C-captain?” Eren asked in surprise.

Levi, wearing his white tie and grey suit, the round black shades perched on his small nose. Eren gaped as the small man made no effort to slow down, charging him. Captain Levi dropped his baton down to his sides and swept out in front of Eren. Eren tripped over his own feet backwards and put his arms up in front of him. He felt a heavy thud strike his shoulder, Sasha’s projectile making contact.

Christa walked through the frozen illusion of Captain Levi and Eren let out a groan hitting his head on the floor.

“Eee!” Christa shrieked. “We won!”

“Good job Team A and you too, Team Leader,” Shadis gave his congratulations to Christa.

She and Sasha linked fingers and danced excitedly and Eren covered his hands with his face. Fucking empaths. Christa sensed Eren’s feelings for Captain Levi and used it against him. Stupid. Fucking stupid of him to fall for it.

Shadis turned from the display to Erwin and Levi.

“Well?” the bald man asked.

“At least you know he’s still afraid of you,” Erwin said out of the corner of his mouth.

“Tch,” Levi said, adjusting his gloves.

Back in the maze, Christa was still celebrating.

“We win, you lose, we win, you lose,” she cheered.

Eren really hoped she could sense the giant middle finger he was sending her way.

“Lenz, Braus, you’re dismissed,” Shadis said and the two began slipping under the concrete.

Eren tongued at his cheek. That couldn’t be good. The display fell and instead of the docks he was in a black room, alone, the rest of the teams having slipped into the rooms below the deck.

The side door opened and Levi breezed through. Eren scrambled to attention, holding a salute. This time there was no doubt that it was Levi and not an illusion.

“Jaeger. At ease. You’ve been assigned,” Levi said bitingly. “Follow me.”

The ride in the elevator was very long and slow.

“Assigned to where?” Eren asked, rocking back and forth on his heels.

“You’ll be briefed upon arrival,” Levi said.

“Do…” Eren started as Levi continued staring at the doors. “Do you remember me, sir? It’s Eren. We met a little over two years ago.”

“I meet a lot of people,” Levi said crisply.

“Yes, but…you really don’t remember me?” Eren asked.

“I don’t make it a habit of getting to know cadets,” the Captain adjusted his cufflinks.

“Eren,” Eren repeated. “Eren Jaeger, the shifter?”

“Shifter, that’s why you’ve been picked for this assignment.”

Eren clenched his jaw in annoyance.

Levi looked at the folder he was carrying and when he looked back into the doors he saw two sets of reflections—both of himself. Levi frowned and adjusted his tie and the doppelgänger did the same.

“You can Shift into people?” Levi said casually, picking dust from his shirt.

Eren did the same and so Levi turned to look at him.

“Everything except the eyes,” he said, dropping the round frames to show a pair of green beauties blinking out from Levi’s face. “Also, I can’t do tattoos or scars if I haven’t seen them…”

He raked his eyes over Levi’s torso.

“Hm,” Levi said.

“Eren Jaeger,” Eren repeated. “You really don’t remember me? I ran a group of kids holding up dispensaries? You got us all clemency? None of that strikes a bell?”

Levi checked his watch.

“You don’t remember our kiss?” Eren teased.

Levi’s mouth pressed into a hard line and the doors to the elevator opened. Levi stepped out and Eren had to jog a little to keep up with his brisk pace. Without warning Levi shoved Eren into dark doorway.

“Of course I remember you, you brat,” Levi snarled. “But there are video cameras everywhere. And if you ever dare speak that disrespectfully to your superior officer I’ll have you written up for insubordination and flogged despite our history—however fleeting we may have known each other.”

“It was an amazing kiss,” Eren nodded, smiling, hearing very little of what Levi was actually saying.

“I—that’s not—“

“Did you take me to where there weren’t any cameras to get another kiss, Captain?” Eren asked, taking a step forward.

Levi tried to take a step back, but found a powerful tail wrapped around his waist, pulling him closer. He tsked and turned his head to the side. There were claws at his neck, ripping his tie to shreds. Eren widened his jaw, rows and rows of shark teeth grazing against Levi’s pale throat with razor sharp points. Levi shuddered and relaxed into Eren’s arms. Hot breath fogged Levi’s glasses and burned his Adam’s apple, as Levi twisted his hands into Eren’s shirt, pulling him closer. It was a set of human lips that met Levi’s and a human hand that pressed between his shoulder blades. Eren’s mouth was soft and wet and everything Levi remembered. He’d had a long time to think about his time with the Shifter. He’d never quite felt a thrill of danger like that before, nor had he since. Levi touched the heavy paw at his side, feeling between the soft pads.

“Sorry,” Eren apologized.

“No, don’t stop,” Levi gasped and Eren paused for a moment before breaking out into a wide grin.

There were sharp claws threading through his hair and something scaly slipping up his ankle tugging at the hem. The creepier, crawlier, more predatory being that Eren became, the more Levi lost himself in his grasp. Eren bit at his ears with sharp little teeth then scraped them against Levi’s bottom lip, slipping a forked tongue inside his mouth. Levi hissed in surprise.

“Too much?” Eren asked.

“A little,” he said, pulling away and scrunching up his nose.

Oh but he was thankful for Eren’s human lips.

Eren began fumbling with the buttons on Levi’s shirt and Levi drew the zipper on Eren’s training suit down to his navel. He slipped his hand underneath the tight suit, down between Eren’s legs and Eren moaned into his mouth.

“Uh, sir?” Petra called from down the hall and Levi and Eren stopped their heavy petting. “Squad Leader Hanji from upstairs called to tell me to inform you that they installed CCTV cameras down here earlier this week and that they can see you.”

“How much?” Levi asked, tucking in his shirt tails as Eren zipped up his suit.

“Pretty much all of it,” Petra said apologetically and Levi winced.

“Did…you see?” Levi asked her.

“No, sir.”

Levi let out a sigh of relief and stepped around the corner.

“Petra, this is Eren, he’ll be joining our team. Eren, this is Petra. Come, let’s meet the rest of the team,” Levi said, putting his hand on Eren’s back to steer him, then flipping off Hanji on the monitors.

“Team, this is Eren Jaeger, he’s a natural Shifter, if you don’t like it, there’s the door, don’t let it hit you on the way out, etcetera, where are we on our case?”

“Nice to meet you, Gunter Schultz,” a dark haired man said introducing himself and Eren shook his hand.

“No word yet on where our target has gone, the embassy is in turmoil over the death, they’re blaming us, since they think we have all the latest magic tech,” said the second-in-command.

“When don’t they? Thank you Eld,” Levi said giving a pinched expression.

“Sir,” Eld nodded.

“Hey boss, looks like your cat had a run at your suit,” a man with potmarks said, looking at the Levi’s shoulders where the fabric was torn to shreds.

Levi looked at them in a mirror and scowled, fixing Eren with a fierce expression.

“I’m just going to rip it off of you later,” Eren whispered into Levi’s ear and Levi tried not to look pleased by this information.

“Well then team, let’s get to work. Eren, are you ready for your first assignment?” Levi asked, reaching down and removing Eren’s hand from his bottom.

“Yes,” Eren said looking at all of the monitors and the experienced team around him. “I really, really am.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I might continue this prompt later as a multichap, but for now, this will be the open ended finish. Enjoy! ;D


	3. Riot in Thunder Alley

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Eren joins Squad Levi to track down and exterminate a vampire hive, but it proves bigger and more deadly than they had anticipated...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow, okay, so I had always left it unclear if I would revisit this AU and then I got a flash of inspiration this week and wrote up two chapters for you guys! It's been nearly a year since I wrote this and let me tell you, I have MISSED it. This fic always felt rougher, more raw than a lot of my other works. It has a frenetic energy that is hard to keep up when writing so it can be quite exhausting, but holy fuck is it fun to write! But if you're just picking this up a year later after reading the other two chapters, let me fill you in.
> 
> PREVIOUSLY ON WELCOME TO THE JUNGLE (DUN DUN):
> 
> Eren and his friends were busted in a sting after their "friend" Annie set them up. Squad leader Erwin Smith and his team (Hanji, Levi, Mike and junior squad members Nanaba and Moblit) brought them in for questioning where it was revealed that Eren is a natural born shifter. The Survey Corps work out a deal with the teenage criminals because even though they were running hold up jobs it was only to fuel their illegal magic practices. And hey, they're also pretty talented mages. Levi reveals to Eren that Annie is gathering "cue balls" aka blue glowing magical ball thingies that can be used to detonate a person. MEEP! Levi implies if Eren keeps his nose clean and gets through basic training he might be able to join his team...
> 
> Two years later and Levi receives a promotion to Squad Leader. After watching Eren's performance in the training ring, Levi thinks he's ready. Eren confesses his attraction to Levi. Levi is initially dismissive, but only because he doesn't want their conversation recorded. They kiss, Eren getting carried away and letting his more...animal side...take over. Birds and the bees here kiddos. Eren tells Levi he's going to rip off his suit later (ooer). The story ends when Levi asks Eren if he's ready for his first assignment. 
> 
> And that's exactly where we start off!
> 
> ...Dun Dun!
> 
> \--
> 
> Trigger warnings for this chapter:
> 
> TW: blood and gore. There is a lot of blood and gore in this chapter but it's mostly from undead vampires, which I envision as more zombified bloodsacks.
> 
> \--
> 
> Soundtrack:
> 
> "Dirty Harry's Creed"//Lalo Schifrin  
> "Riot in Thunder Alley"//Eddie Beram

_“Well then team, let’s get to work. Eren, are you ready for your first assignment?” Levi asked, reaching down and removing Eren’s hand from his bottom._

_“Yes,” Eren said looking at all of the monitors and the experienced team around him. “I really, really am.”_

<*>

“This…this wasn’t what I expected when you said my first assignment,” Eren complained through grit teeth.

“Hey, focus. I want those windows looking shiny,” Levi barked from the comfort of the surveillance van.

“You know I’m not a real window washer right?” Eren reminded him.

Although with the hairy butt crack and large mustache, Eren felt very much the part. He was hundreds of feet up in the air on a scaffold, pretending to clean. It was the perfect vantage for him to see all the comings and goings in the city streets and alleys.

“Afraid of heights?” Oluo jeered.

“Hardly, I just—“

“Alright, she’s coming out, everyone places and keep this channel clear,” Levi ordered.

Eren looked at his tablet screen. All members of the team were equipped with cameras on their glasses so Levi could see from their perspective.

Petra stepped out of the café bathroom wearing a bright yellow sundress and white mod sunglasses and carrying some frozen coffee drink.

“How do I look?” she asked her mic discreetly.

“N-nice,” Oluo stammered and his camera swept up and down her bare legs.

Eren rolled his eyes and went back to doing a shoddy job cleaning the windows.

“Perfect vamp bait,” Eld said approvingly, wearing jeans and a beanie, looking very much like a college student checking his phone in the park.

“Fabulous,” Petra chirped.

She looked great and perfect for the part, but Petra just seemed so…small. Too tiny to go up against bloodsucking vamps. Back in his teenage theft days Eren had a run-in with more than a few red eyed potion freaks. Red Potions weren’t as highly regulated then as they were now. First they start with the red eyes, then the skin picking, then the obsessive counting. Then they become blood obsessed before finally starving to death. And when they wake, they wake up hungry. Eren bit his tongue and held his reservations. Petra was on Team Levi. Levi only picked the best. She’d be fine.

“So we’ve been getting reports of attacks in the area, there has to be a hive nearby,” Gunter was saying.

“Roger,” Petra said, still sipping on her iced coffee.

“Alright, Dorothy is entering the alley, stay alert,” Levi said, slipping into their codenames, just in case their line was hijacked.

Eren rolled his eyes at the codenames. Neither Oluo nor Eren were particularly fond of theirs, but Levi hadn’t been the one to pick them out. Still, Oluo’s laugh when Eren received his was enough to make him grumpy.

Eren watched the tiny yellow dot that was Petra move in between the alleys. The sun was slipping below the horizon. All points appeared for a moment to converge on the bright sunshine of Petra’s dress, catching in the red strands of her hair before she stepped past the solid line of shadow cast by the skyscrapers. Twilight, when all the vamps woke and were hungriest.

“You got a bogey on your six, Dorothy,” Eld said, from his viewpoint.

“Vamp?” Levi asked.

“Hard to say,” Eld was cautious. They didn’t want to risk moving in solely for a random citizen and scare off the vamps in the area.

“Whoa, we got another,” Gunter said from the crossways. “I think they’re trying to steer you to the middle there Dorothy.”

“Can we tell if these pricks are muggers or if they’re vamps yet?” Levi asked, bored. They could hear him rustling about in the van, cleaning the previous team’s disgusting fast food mess.

“Really can’t say,” Oluo said.

“I need to get a better vantage,” Gunter said.

“Scarecrow, Tinman, go topside. Lion, you stay on the ground, you’re the second.”

Eren watched with his shifter eyes as Eld and Gunter scaled the fire escapes, Oluo trailing at a distance behind Petra.

“Hey Tinman, go left,” Eren said. “Those windows look like they might be blacked out…”

“They are definitely blacked out. Wiz, I think we found the hive,” Eld said.

“Scarecrow, you stay eyes on Dorothy. Tinman, walk the perimeter, how big a building are we talking here?”

“Wiz, we got another one,” Eren said, spotting a third one making his way toward Petra. “Dorothy, get ready.”

“I can’t see inside, but it looks like we could be talking 20-30 vamps,” Eld said.

“Tinman, can you get a foothold inside?” Levi asked.

Eren watched the tablet screen, now barely giving his window washing any interest. Eld cast a sound curtain and then broke the window with his elbow. The glass shattered and broke apart, but the shards never fell, held suspended by Eld’s spell. Eren looked up from the tablet and out on the horizon. He could see Petra and Oluo, and Eld’s leg as he disappeared inside, but not Gunter. He narrowed his eyes and then checked his tablet. Nothing from Gunter.

“Scarecrow, where are you, I lost visual,” Eren called.

No answer.

“Scarecrow, copy, we have no visual, report your location,” Levi took over.

Nothing.

“Lion, you got anything on—“

“Wiz we got a problem,” said Eld.

“Yes, what is it? Do you have visual on Scarecrow?”

“I’m counting over 45 vamps in this room alone and maybe 15 or so in the hallway. Most are still asleep,” Eld whispered. “Captain, we’re looking at maybe 100 or 150 hostiles in this building. This is the largest hive I’ve ever seen.”

“Scarecrow, come in, do you copy?” Eren kept trying.

“I’m sounding the retreat now. We’ll come back with a bigger clean-up crew, this doesn’t feel right. I’ve never heard of a hive that size in an urban environment. Dorothy, get out of that alley as fast as you can. Lion, help her pick up some speed. Scarecrow, come in!”

Only static on the other end.

“This is Scarecrow, copy,” Gunter whispered.  
  
“Hold positions,” Levi barked.  
  
“Captain, I fell through a weak board in the ceiling and have landed into the middle of the hive. I softened the sound of my fall, but…I’m still looking at over 60 sleeping vamps.” Gunter’s voice was shaky. He’d fallen right into the lion’s den.

“Can you make a retreat?” Levi asked.

“I scraped my leg when I fell. It’s bleeding.”

Eren heard Levi suck in air.

“But Captain, they’re all huddled on something here. It’s humming. I don’t know what it is.”

“Can you get out where you fell in?” Levi asked.

“They’re waking up,” Gunter whispered.

 “Hey girlie, you lost?” hissed the man behind Petra. She turned and Eren could see his gruesome face fill up the screen. Teeth that looked an inch long with pointed ends, fingernails that looked like they belonged in a Guinness World Record book.

“No, just turned around, I think I need to go this way actually—“

“You’re not going anywhere—ah!”

The vamp gave a garbled cry as Petra tapped his forehead with a quick spell. There was shuddering sound and then the vamp exploded under her touch.

“Ugh, this dress was so cute too,” she complained elbowing her next attacker.

“This is Squad Leader Levi, we are looking at a serious hive of over 100 vamps and a magical item of unknown origin. Sent backup. Send a whole squad. Send two whole squads. And a cleanup crew. This is gonna be a mess. Levi out.”

He threw down his headphones and leapt out of the back of the truck.

“They’re all moving now,” Gunter whispered, drawing energy towards him. “They can smell me but they don’t know where it’s coming from yet.”

“We’re making our way to you,” Petra said. “I got a nice sunny beach ball right when I get there, just hold on!”

One of the vamps sniffing around for Gunter, found the cut on his leg and lapped at it. He struck it down, driving a spike of energy straight through the heart. It whined as it died and the others perked up their ears and hissed.

“Move!” Oluo shouted at Petra and for once he looked nothing like the Captain he so oft imitated as he barreled into the door with all of his weight in a graceless yet effective action. The momentum carried him into a pillar.

“You okay?” Petra asked.

“Bit my tongue,” Oluo said thickly, swiping out with his baton at another vamp.

The sun had almost set and the hive was buzzing as all the vampires rose to feed. And here several tasty little morsels had stumbled into their midst.

“Wiz, I can see glyphs on the wall here. I don’t recognize them. I think this is it. This is where our Void monks are doing their work!” Eld called into the mic.

“ _What do I do?_ ” Eren thought to himself. He couldn’t just sit here and let the team go in by themselves, it was slaughter. But Levi had told him to stay put. Eren set down the tablet, his eyes sweeping the horizon.

No; Levi had told him not to show his real _face_.

He looked at the tablet, then he looked at the scene.

“This is Toto, I’m joining Squad Leader,” he barked into his mic, changing his face into someone who could be your average joe (or what he called “The Kirstein,” a face that looked like it could be Jean’s brother).

“Goddamnit don’t you dare—“ Levi snapped, but Eren kicked the lever to the window rigging.

The rigging plummeted to the ground at a reckless pace and Eren flicked a spell to have it slow right before it struck the sidewalk. He jumped out of the wreckage and raced towards Levi.

“Fine,” Levi growled, obviously not happy about the arrangement. “But you stay on my tail and don’t fall behind, got it?”

“Yes, sir,” Eren nodded.

They sprinted up to the western face of the block. Eren paused as Levi climbed up the drainpipe on the side of the building. Eren didn’t have that kind of upper body strength and he couldn’t use his shifting abilities without Levi’s approval. He instead chose to clamber up the fire escape, which took longer but proved just as effective. Levi kicked through one of the windows, surprising an elderly woman who was busy watching the Powerball and raced through her apartment to the other side. Eren paused and grabbed her near empty bowl of popcorn.

“Sorry!” Eren shouted after her as he followed the Captain. “Also you should really move, this is a terrible neighborhood!”

Eren made it to the window opposite the room to watch Levi running—yes—actually _running_ on the laundry line that acted as a tightrope, arms in a windmill as he propelled himself forward and into the face of a snarling vampire. What was he, a circus performer in another life?

“Oh,” Eren let out a little whine of frustration. Keeping up with the Captain was harder than he anticipated.

There were several more vamps in the alley, turning their noses up to smell Levi. Eren tipped the bowl of popcorn down. It shattered, sending kernels everywhere and they quickly ceased their snarling and began counting them as if each were a precious diamond. Eren could see the balcony of the neighbors stuck out a bit further and he might be able to leap from it to the boarded up hive. He took off, ripping open the door of the woman’s apartment to the hallway.

The hallway was littered with debris and what looked like…bones. And blood on the walls. And strange glyphs. He spared no time to examine them. He could hear Petra and Oluo in his earpiece pushing their way toward Gunter and Eld’s used a clever inversion spell to walk on the ceiling. Eren needed to get there!

He cast a propulsion charm and kicked down the neighbor’s door, nearly retching on the smell.

“Found the neighbor’s, they’re painted on the walls,” Eren gagged, racing for the balcony.

“Either make it over or don’t bother—“ Levi shouted into the mic as he kicked open a window. He severed the laundry line and used it to whip a vamp around its throat and jerk it down on top of those in the alley. “It’s better that you stay and wait for reinforcements than get left behind. Make your choice—“

Eren sent a fireball that took out the vamp who was about to take a chunk out of Levi’s arm.

“I saw him.” Levi’s brow twitched.

Eren didn’t have a response, he was too out of breath.

They burst into the hive. Levi knocked out the long hungry teeth of a vamp and slicing through another with an electric blade cast by his baton. Eren followed, lit up with green flames. A vamp lurched for him and he set them on fire. They screamed and ran, knocking into others and also setting the dry desiccated corpses on fire. Eren turned from the sight to see Levi’s tailcoat whip out of sight. He moved toward him but his path was blocked by more vamps. They overpowered him, knocking him to the ground. He scattered his bag of marbles and some of the vamps went for them, but the rest stayed focused on him, intent on ripping him to shreds.

“Yeah your little trick with the marbles isn’t going to work in a hive,” Levi said, driving his baton through the chest cavity of the vamp on top of Eren, stopping just short of Eren’s nose. “Push through and don’t get lost, just focus on moving forward!”

He pulled Eren to his feet and then held onto his wrist as he pulled them from the room.

Momentum: that was Captain Levi’s driving force. Keep on moving until he met an immovable object. Eren found himself distracted as he fought next to his hero, his inspiration, and…maybe someday his lover. Levi crunched the long nose of a vamp with a wave of his hand making it look like a pug before he cut it down. There was blood all over his suit, there was blood all over Eren and his false face. Each time a vamp went down for good it shuddered and burst like a water balloon on pavement, showering them with sticky dark blood, Eren’s shoes were slipping in it. A wall of clutching hands pressed against him. He saw only hands and feral eyes, strange faces everywhere in the dark, and then a humming noise as Levi’s baton carved a path. Why did it seem like there were only more of them? And Eren realized it was because they were pushing to the heart of the nest. The center of the hive. Where the rest of their team was trapped.

Eren knocked out a window and looked down. The hole where Gunter had fallen through was barely visible beneath them. Eren looked down to see Petra, her dress stained red looking up at him, but her eyes were alive with fire. And then she summoned everything for a spell.

“READY!” she shouted above the din.

“Close your eyes!” Levi ordered.

Eren did so, but the light from the spell was so bright, like concentrated sunshine, that even though he squeezed them shut he felt the burst of light sear his corneas. There were several soft popping noises as vamps close to the window were hit by the light and dissolved into bloodsacks. The sound reminded Eren of a roll of bubble wrap and his stomach lurched. Levi and Eren were left with an empty blood-soaked stairwell and more vamps ascending the stairs.

“You guys good?” Levi called down, holding his batons down at his sides.

Gunter waved up at them. “Yeah I think so! But there’s something down here you should—“

And then everything exploded. The stairwell rocked and Eren instinctively fell on top of Levi as the blast sent them both flying backwards. Eren hadn’t even noticed he’d thrown up his armadillo shell and quickly put it away before Levi could scold him for it.

“What was that?” Eren asked, shaking his head as his ears rang.

“Dunno,” Levi coughed. “But it came from down there.”

Levi was covered in blood and debris and he looked paler than normal as he looked at the hole where his team had been.

“You don’t think…” Eren said looking down there, mouth agape.

They could hear sirens and trucks rolling up with MPs ready to contain the scene. Levi hopped down and Eren followed him. They tested the ground near the hole and held their breath as they looked in.

“We’re alright,” Oluo called out and they both exhaled in relief. “Petra’s hurt. And…it’s weird down here Boss.”

And then Levi was down in the hole. There were no vamps left intact from either the explosion or Petra’s “beach ball” as she called her sunlight attack.

“Hey Petra,” Levi said, his eyes quickly sweeping the scene and kneeling down to look at her.

“She saved us,” Oluo said, his eyes looking at her with concern on his lined face. “Threw up a shield right as that thing blew.”

“Took the brunt with my arms though,” Petra grimaced, holding both of her arms in front of her, Gunter and Oluo supporting her on both sides.

They were swollen and bent. She was shaking from the exertion of holding them up.

“May I see?” Eren asked as Levi stood up to look at the wreckage left by the explosion.

Eren took her hands and tested it gently to see if she could move it. She let out a whimper and Oluo got in his face.

“Hey! Hands off!” Oluo put his baton right under Eren’s nose.

“My dad was a healer, I learned a few things from him and an empath at the academy. Here, I can at least set these and get the healing started.”

“Look at this fucking rookie thinking he knows—“

“The faster I start, the sooner she can get on the path to recovery!” Eren said, growing frustrated himself. Then directly to Petra, “Otherwise you might be out of commission for months.”

“Oluo, shut up,” Levi said.

“Whoa, boss, what the—“ Oluo said standing up.

Eren twisted to look behind him and his eyes went wide.

“Eren, help Petra, the rest of you, clear the room. Make sure none of those MPs gets anywhere near this.”

“Boss what is that?” Eld asked, his throat bobbing.

“A Rift,” Levi said, pulling out a knife. “Leave. I don’t want you to see this. Don’t look at it. That’s how it beckons you.”

Petra shut her eyes and Eren turned his back to it, but out of the corner of his eyes he could see Levi drag the knife across his palm and offer it to the swirling vortex in front of him. The blood slipped between his fingers and then stretched towards the gaping maw of the Void. Eren watched openmouthed as the offered blood pulled from his palm toward the portal like water slipping down the drain, like light pulling into a black hole.

_“I was thinking we could go to the beach this week, wouldn’t that be nice, hm? We could invite Armin and Mikasa if you wanted—“_

Eren closed his eyes tight and willed away his mother’s voice. He instead focused on the problem in front of him.

“This is going to hurt,” Eren apologized before his magic set Petra’s forearms with a loud crack.

She cried out and then bit her lip to keep from sobbing.

“Oh god, this hurts like a sumbitch,” she said, laughing even as tears fell down her cheeks.

“I’m going to try and give you a little bit here,” Eren said, urging the magic from his fingertips to hers. “It’ll help relieve the pain but it’s only temporary until the EMTs can give you something stronger.”

“Oh,” she gasped, the tightness in her brows lessening. Her arms ceased shaking. “T-thank you, Eren.”

“No problem,” he said helping her to her feet.

Oluo cut in, elbowing Eren out of the way to help Petra to the EMTs. Eren only put his hands up in surrender and went back to the Captain. Levi’s quiet chanting and his own blood, his own life force, slowly closed the portal. The portal sealed itself shut and the Captain sagged. Eren put out his hands to catch him, should he fall. He’d never seen magic used quite like that before. Once again, the Captain surprised him. Levi shook him off and then tripped like a drunk man toward the exit.

Something stirred in the pile of vampire gore and Levi instinctively snapped out his baton in his cut hand. The wraith there looked at the baton and then with no sense of self-preservation leaned forward to lap at the cut on Levi’s hand.

 “Captain—“ Eren said, ready to end its misery.

“Don’t. She’s not dead yet,” Levi said looking at the red eyes and fangs, but her skin still had a bit of pink in it. Her complexion looked more alive than Levi’s ashen face at the moment.

“Oh,” said Eren. “I’ve never seen anyone this far gone before. She looks…she looks like she’s maybe ten? Will she be okay?”

“I don’t know. Maybe, if they can wean the red potion out of her system.”

She looked up at Levi, lips curling happily, still feeding from his palm.

“Disgusting,” Levi said without cruelty in his voice, thumb brushing over her cheek.

They left the girl with social workers. Eren didn’t know what would become of her.

“Sir, I saw the monk about a second before he set the bomb off, he disappeared through that thing. The vamps just ignored him, how is that—“ Gunter said, rushing up to him, his leg recently bandaged.

Levi cut him off and motioned to all the eyes and ears of the MPs and EMTs. He put a finger to his lips.

“I want you all to go to headquarters after they check you out at the compound. And then when you go in for debriefing, I want you to go straight to Erwin, Mike, or Hanji. Don’t let any of the MPs try and stop you. Say you won’t speak until you can talk to Erwin. And then you tell him everything that happened here, understood? Don’t leave anything out. And keep your mouth shut about this to anyone else.”

 “Sir?” Eld asked, concern on his face. “Aren’t you coming with us?”

“I have something I need to do first,” he said dismissively. “Eren!”

Eren jumped at the sound of his name.

“You’re coming with me,” Levi jerked his head.

Eren followed on Levi’s heels and inquisitive look on his face as he passed his teammates. He didn’t know what exactly Levi needed him for.

“Can you drive a stick?” Levi asked walking briskly.

A man in a uniform handed a set of keys to Levi before racing off to find Squad Leader Hanji who could be heard loudly crying that they had missed the portal collapse.

“Thanks Moblit,” Levi nodded curtly.

“Yeah—yes, sir,” Eren said, not understanding.

“Great, you drive,” Levi said, tossing his keys.

Eren didn’t know what he meant until he saw the silver Jaguar.

“Wow,” Eren jumped excitedly, opening the door for Levi.

“Put some newspaper down, I don’t want vamp guts in my car,” Levi ordered, his lip curling at the sight of the both of them.

Eren did so and the second Levi’s head touched the headrest, he groaned in pain. He gave Eren his address and then passed out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ...Next chapter is pure magical smutty goodness. I hope you're pumped.


	4. Release

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Eren sees to Levi's injuries, healing him with magic, but the sensation is better than either of them expected...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you like 3.5k of pure magic smut. Because that's what this is. (Note: there are tentacles mentioned briefly but no tentacle porn so don't worry).
> 
> If you like, please leave kudos and comments. Or check out my blog [perksofbeingawaifu](http://perksofbeingawaifu.tumblr.com/)!

 

Eren parked the car and shook Levi awake. They walked into the expensive high rise apartment building, earning shocked looks from the doorman and an elderly man walking his Pomeranian.

“Evening, Mr. Ackerman,” said the doorman tipping his cap.

“Groswald. Mr. Wilhelm,” Levi said, now walking with a distinct limp.

“Are you going to make it?” Eren asked, putting an arm around Levi’s waist.

“I don’t know,” Levi smiled thinly, leaning heavily on Eren for support.

“This your apartment?” Eren asked, sensing the magic sigils on the front door.

“Yeah,” Levi said, putting in his key and waving the sigils. He let them both in, leaning heavily on the door as it shut.

“C’mon let’s get you to—“

“I need to put them back up,” Levi shook him off, casting the spells despite Eren’s protests.

“You need rest,” Eren pleaded.

“I need…I’m filthy…I can’t—“ Levi said, dizzily.

“Shower?” Eren asked.

“First door on the right,” Levi motioned, his wrist limp.

Eren didn’t wait any longer, he scooped Levi up into his arms which had changed into muscular gorilla arms since they entered the apartment.

“See?” Eren joked, sharp claws slicing bloody clothes off Levi with indelicate precision. “I told you I’d rip off this suit.”

Levi gave a small breathy laugh.

“Hey, I need you to stay conscious, okay?” Eren asked. “If you go out, I’m going to call the compound and have them send healers out.”

“I don’t want—don’t send them—they won’t know—“

“Then stay with me, okay?” Eren coaxed.

Eren pulled the last article of blood soaked clothing off and gasped.

“Captain…” he whispered, looking all over Levi’s body.

There were fresh cuts covering every part of his body, Eren hadn’t noticed since both of them were covered head to toe in drying blood. How had this happened? Eren hadn’t seen any of the vamps get near him.

“It’s the Void,” Levi explained, his head lolling.

Eren shed his own filthy clothing and stepped into the steaming shower, supporting Levi. Levi jumped a little when the water hit him before sighing with relief. Eren’s brows knit together. He held Levi up with two hands while another two fumbled looking for soap and shampoo. Levi’s exhaustion turned to confusion however when he felt several limbs working soap into his hair and another rubbing his body with the bar soap.

“Sorry,” Eren apologized, not ceasing his work. He knew Levi probably wasn’t used to Eren and his shifting abilities, but right now it was more practical to get this done as soon as possible and hey, it was easier with more appendages.

“Are those…?” Levi asked, eyes having a hard time focusing on the tentacles.

“Yeah,” Eren said rubbing over Levi’s scarred chest with the soap. One tentacle sucker stuck to his nipple as another dipped between his legs to clean the blood off him. “Sorry.”

Levi didn’t really have a response to that. His brow contracted, perplexed at the sight, but allowing Eren to minister to him.

He slipped a tentacle up Levi’s chest and stopped over his heart, the suckers spreading out into fingers and shaping into a human hand. If the problem was the Void then treating every single wound separately wouldn’t do. He pressed a little firmer against Levi’s chest, listening to his weak heartbeat. Jesus, how much blood had he lost? Eren screwed up his face and then relaxed, letting the magic flow from him. He timed it in between heartbeats. Levi gasped a little and Eren saw the small cuts and gashes closing. They were still raw and angry, but no longer bleeding. The red swirling down the drain turned clear. He turned off the water and carried Levi to the bed. Eren set him down and then returned with a towel.

“Thanks,” Levi said softly. “Just let me sleep.”

He looked so pale with fresh purple scars dancing across his body. His dark lashes fluttered, his face pinched in pain.

“Roll over,” Eren asked, making up his mind.

Levi didn’t look like he was able so Eren rolled him onto his belly. He still had that tightly coiled way about him, even now as weak as he appeared Eren held no doubts that the Captain was saving his energy, waiting for some new enemy to emerge. He also felt a twinge of pride knowing that Levi had chosen him. He could have asked any of the others to take him home, but he chose Eren. And Eren was going to make sure he didn’t regret that choice. He opened up Levi’s nightstand drawers searching for something. He found massage oil like he knew he would.

Levi watched him, a sliver of that unnatural grey following his movements. Exhausted, but wary. Eren placed the oil in his hands and warmed it with a spell before applying it to Levi’s back.

“I have a friend who was training to be a healer before she was recruited for the Survey Corps,” Eren explained, rubbing the oil gently over Levi’s back. “And she explained to me a technique she called pulse healing. Instead of offering a steady flow of healing magic, which can drain the user and isn’t as effective, she uses the flow of one’s pulse. She also said she found it most effective when placed at certain points along the body. So I’m going to start here.”

Eren’s fingers rubbed at Levi’s scalp, eliciting a groan from him.

“And you and I are going to work together here, can you do that for me?”

Levi didn’t say anything, but his dark lashes fluttered.

“Can you do that for me Captain?” Eren whispered in his ear.

“I’ll try,” he said in a hoarse voice.

“When I breathe, you breathe. When I inhale, you inhale. When I exhale, you do the same.”

Two years of experimenting with his shifting ability had given Eren the patience he’d never had as a youth. It took years of intense concentration and working with people of all magical specialties to be able to hold a human form. And meditating was necessary to maintain that shape without distorting it. Even now he could hold it despite unconsciousness.

“Inhale,” Eren ordered.

Levi took a breath.

“Fill up your lungs,” Eren said, fingers rubbing oil down his ribs. “Expand your ribcage.”

“Exhale,” Eren said and Levi complied.

The sound of two breaths evened out until there was only one, they moved in sync. Eren pressed against Levi’s crown, rubbing at the skin there. He started.

“You’re going to feel the pulses soon,” Eren told him. “It may hurt or itch, but I need you to relax and remember to breathe.”

Eren waited in between breaths. Using his lungs he summoned the energy to him and then with an exhale he pushed it to his fingertips. From there it flowed to Levi’s scalp and trickled downward. Levi let out a pained cry and buried his face into the pillow.

“Easy, breathe,” Eren reminded him.

Levi exhaled shakily and looked back at him, his red rimmed eyes looking more distressed than usual.

“I know, I’m sorry,” Eren soothed.

He moved his fingers down to the back of Levi’s head, fingers massaging at his temples and just above his ears. The pulses started again and Levi jerked, balling his hands into fists, but he didn’t ask Eren to stop. Eren didn’t know what kind of pain Levi was in, but he had some idea that it was a pain he carried with him daily. The constant call of the Void took its toll. And then to look into a Rift today, to face it, and walk away with only scratches…Levi had an incredible will to survive. Eren wanted to relieve some of that burden.

He moved on to the third point, massaging at Levi’s neck which was tense and firm under his hands. Levi twitched on contact. Eren paused but Levi gave a small nod, allowing him to continue. This time with the pulses Levi opened his mouth in a silent scream. Eren could feel skin healing underneath his hands, muscles relaxing. Levi’s body was knitting itself back together. The destructive power of the Void, the pain it caused, was nothing compared to the way life from Eren pulled Levi back together.

“Breathe with me,” Eren bent down to whisper in his ear, his naked chest brushing against Levi’s back as he did so. He felt Levi’s breath regulate under him and smiled.

He found the place directly over Levi’s heart and massaged, pressing him there and pulsing again. This kind of magic could take its toll on a person, but Eren had more than enough stamina. He was pacing himself. Levi only grunted this time as the magic passed over him. Eren wondered if the intense pain was behind them. He moved down his spine, never ceasing contact, trailing pulses in his wake, pausing at another point. Then further down to his lower back.

“You know,” Levi said in a muffled voice, picking his head up from his pillow. “It doesn’t actually hurt that much anymore. More like being flicked with rubber bands now.”

“Christa said it can even be pleasurable.”

He wished he hadn’t said that. Too awkward. He bit his lip and winced in embarrassment. Remember to breathe, he reminded himself.

“Uh, but I should let you know, that it is…like a blood transfusion. It’s me…giving you something of myself. Sometimes there can be side effects. Like you may have a brief memory that isn’t yours. Or you may find you pick up some of my personality for a day. It’ll dissipate.”

“Good to know if I start acting like a moron it won’t be my fault,” Levi said, grimacing a little as Eren pulsed.

Eren worked at him, ignoring Levi’s eyes peering back at him as he looked over his shoulder.

“So this is…you. It’s like you’re inside me,” Levi said, now looking a great deal more energetic than he had before.

“I…uh…we…this works better if we are quiet and focus on our breathing.”

Levi’s words made working on the seventh point far more awkward as his fingers massaged at the base of his spine. But Eren wasn’t going to let Levi intimidate him. He adopted a professional air even as he smoothed oil over Levi’s buttocks. He kept his eyes focused on the headboard, regulating his breathing and kneading Levi. Levi’s response was to spread his legs a little wider. When Eren caught his face, Levi’s grey eyes had a glint of mirth in them before closing them with a little hum. He was looking better. Eren tested his theory with a quick pinch to Levi’s backside.

“Hey!” Levi jumped.

“You’ve got some color to your skin now,” Eren said, smoothing the spot out with his palm.

He was finished with the seven points he wanted to pulse, but he continued down to Levi’s legs and then the soles of his feet.

“Mmm, that’s nice,” Levi sighed.

Eren traced his finger down the length of Levi’s foot and Levi jumped a little.

“Shithead,” Levi complained, sinking back into his pillow.

Eren massaged Levi’s arms, hands gliding down those thick biceps and forearms, pulling just a little to work the magic to Levi’s very fingertips. Eren could feel it buzzing there, seeking out his touch and he obliged, careful to work his way between each knuckle.

“Alright, let’s roll you over so I can work on your front.”

Levi gave a little noise of complaint but rolled over onto his back. Facing Levi, looking him square in his unnatural grey eyes as they followed his every movement, was more daunting than before. Eren had adopted his role of healer with a modicum of professionality that he wanted to continue but the way Levi’s eyes sought him out and traced the lines of Eren’s naked body had his careful breathing hitching slightly. Levi shifted a little, spreading his legs and nudging at Eren’s thigh with his big toe.

“Really?” Levi said with a crooked smile, looking down between Eren’s legs. “Look I get it, you have this fun ability and you want to show off, but you don’t need to upgrade the size of your Johnson just to get my attention.”

“Oh...no. That’s…that’s all me,” Eren said, wiping off some of the oil on his bare thighs before touching Levi’s scalp.

“Really? You weren’t trying to go for a horse—“

“No.”

“Oh. Well…congratulations.” Levi’s big toe kept bouncing against Eren’s thigh and he seized it and gave it a small squeeze to stop.

“Focus on breathing, no talking,” Eren insisted, more for himself than for Levi. He couldn’t continue casting the spell with Levi commenting on his size.

His hands were shaking a little now as he leaned over Levi. He rubbed and sent out the pulses at the top of Levi’s head. Levi closed his eyes, enjoying the sensation, looking much as he had under the showerhead. Eren liked him like this, relaxed, not as composed as his normal self, with his fringe pushed back off his pale forehead. Eren could see a recently healed scar near his hairline that offset the part and a blue vein through his near translucent skin. He moved down to the second point, pressing at the worry line between his brows and Levi’s lips parted. He smoothed out the skin there and down his brows to his high, almost delicate looking cheekbones. His nose brushed against Levi’s and Levi’s eyes fluttered open. When had he gotten this close? He could see the pale grey of Levi’s eyes and the dark flecks of blue like ice on the lakes. Inhale. Eren could feel cool air on his lips. Exhale and Levi’s warmth stirred something in him. Inhale and their lips were barely touching. Like a child who has managed to stroke the fluttering wings of a wild bird as it takes flight, their kiss was but the gentlest caress. Exhale and Eren could feel Levi’s breath fill his lungs like a delicate perfume. Levi waited for Eren to claim his mouth but Eren resisted. He had to finish his work.

He pulled away and moved onto the third point. He ran his thumb down the line of Levi’s pale throat. His Adam’s apple bobbed under the touch and the tiny pulses Eren sent his way. Eren wondered for a moment if he could send the spell to his lips instead of his fingers. He focused his breathing and felt it at his lips, buzzing and tickling his nose slightly. He kissed the perfect column of Levi’s neck and Levi let out a little gasp, his hand lifting off the bed to tangle in Eren’s still-damp hair. Eren became distracted in Levi’s pointed chin and dragged his lips along the edge of his jaw, leaving a trail of magic crackling in his wake. He pulled away and moved his hands down Levi’s hard chest, settling right over his heart. He pulsed and sent the current through to his heart and then pulled it out to the sides, brushing over Levi’s already erect nipples. The blood that flowed in Levi now was made by Eren, small platelets bearing his magical signature like a tattoo.

How many people did the Captain allow into his bedroom? How many people had seen him this vulnerable? Although Eren had no doubt that even a near fainting Levi would have been able to knock him on his ass, he still liked seeing this gentler man. Levi grasped at him, desperate and wanting, his fingers cupping Eren’s ass and gripping his hips, willing him closer even as Eren pulled away. Eren dipped his fingers into the hard curve of his abs until he was over his solar plexus. The magic hit the bundle of nerves there and Eren was inside his nerves, racing through those tangled trees, digging deep into his roots. He would be the soil Levi grew in. His fingers dipped lower, just under his navel and Levi let out a shocked gasp.

“Eren,” he said in a whisper and Eren didn’t know if Levi was cautioning him or urging him on.

He raised his head to look at Levi’s face. His cheeks were flushed with color and he had his hand up in his own hair. He looked pink and alive. Before he had looked just as pale as one of those vampires and now here he was, alive and beautiful.

“Sorry, it feels…” Levi struggled. “Good. Very good.”

Eren could feel Levi’s arousal coming to life, growing between his legs. His own was heavy and throbbing.

“Then let it feel _good_ ,” Eren urged him.

Levi grew firm under his touch, his cock hardened to its full length and nearly touching his belly. Eren slid his thumbs down from the sixth point moving to the seventh at his groin. Eren took his time, sliding his thumbs down on either side of his cock.

“Shit,” Levi gasped and his thighs were shaking with exertion. He had one hand over his eyes and another tangling in the sheets. The sheets clung to his still damp body as he arched under the magic. “Eren, please. Please, Eren, I need—please touch me. Let me suck you baby, come on, I’ll make you feel good.”

Eren briefly entertained the idea of Levi wrapping his mouth around his cock, but the sight here, of Levi begging for him, was better than any of that.

He could barely contain the magic now, it poured out of him and Levi writhed underneath him. Levi clung to him and the magic Eren directed into him was now coming full circle and making his body shake with a different kind of ecstasy. Eren could all but taste it, like electricity on his tongue and he could smell it. He felt it dancing over his skin and Levi’s. He could feel himself in Levi and he could feel Levi in him.

“Eren, I can’t—“ Levi’s muscular thighs were tensed as Eren ran his thumbs down his balls and to his perineum allowing the pulses at the sensitive flesh.

Each pulse moved like a wave from the center of Eren’s touch crashing over Levi’s quaking body. He felt it surge up. Inhale and they took one breath. Exhale and another pulse rocketed Levi, he arched his back and felt back down, so close. So very close. Inhale and Eren’s hands were brushing just slightly over the base of his cock. Exhale and Levi’s hands were lost in the sheets, he wanted more. Inhale and Eren was losing control, his own body quivering in exertion. Exhale and—

Levi gave a cry and spilled out, his body spasming as he rode through the orgasm. Eren felt his eyes go white and he collapsed against Levi’s flushed thigh. The last lingering pulses moved with the twitch of Levi’s cock and then it was done. Levi went boneless, fighting for each breath. Eren didn’t think he could move either.

He kissed Levi’s thigh and slid off the bed. He stood and a sudden wave of dizziness overcame him. He had to grab the chair to Levi’s office desk to steady himself. He wet the towel in the sink, spots dancing in his eyes and then came back to wipe off Levi’s belly. Levi was caked in sweat, his cheeks claiming the lingering pink of the afterglow, but he was very asleep. Eren might have overdone it. Stumbling back to the bedroom after putting the towel in the hamper, he _knew_ he had overdone it. He lay down next to Levi’s supine form and wrapped his arms around him before slipping into unconsciousness.

He dreamt he was at the circus.

_“I’ve got it!”_

_“Careful!” Izzy cried watching him._

_He knew what he was doing, if only they would just leave him be, he could get it. He hopped up into the seat and bounced once, holding his balance on the unicycle. There, he had it. He rolled around and Izzy chased after him._

_“Here, ready?” Farlan asked as he stepped down._

_Farlan was far more practiced stepping onto the unicycle. Farlan steadied himself and motioned for them to hurry. He gave a little run and a hop, stepping up Farlan’s back and rolling upward until he was crouched on Farlan’s shoulders._

_“Izzy, go!” Farlan said and Isabel ran up into his arms._

_He waited one moment before slowly rising and Isabel moved with him. She moved into a handstand, then brought her feet over her back so far they nearly touched her nose._

_“We’ve got it!” Farlan whooped._

_They rode around in glee and victory, laughing as they rolled past the big top, the others waving as they sped past the bright colors._

_Then the unexpected happened, the tire on the unicycle popped and they all went down. He attempted to cushion Isabel’s fall, but instead his knee landed on a sharp rock. The rock tore through his leggings and he hissed in pain only to see Kenny shaking his head in disapproval._

Eren jolted awake. What was that? A shared dream? Levi was still sleeping. Eren ran his hands down in the darkened room moving over Levi’s thigh, searching for what he knew was there. A small scar on his kneecap. Eren brushed his thumb over it. This was one of the wounds that had been bleeding earlier.

How could a scar from over twenty years ago reopen?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you like, please leave kudos and comments. Or check out my blog [perksofbeingawaifu](http://perksofbeingawaifu.tumblr.com/)!
> 
> This fic is closed for now. I don't want to leave another wip with the expectation that I'll be updating it, because I honestly don't know if I will, I just wanted to share with you guys some of my vision. But who knows, I might revisit it again sometime in the future...and then maybe we'll learn about the Void!

**Author's Note:**

> Would you believe that I didn't know any Guns 'n Roses songs until I wrote this fic??
> 
> Next chapter will air with Prompt #5: Mythology!!! :D


End file.
